Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to account activations. The invention is more particularly related to activation of wireless accounts, particularly for hand held computers, mobile phones, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) each having wireless capabilities.
Discussion of Background
Personal computer systems and their applications have become common tools in modern society. As organizational aids, many personal computer users use personal information management applications such as an address book and a daily organizer on their personal computers. Although such applications have proven useful for personal information management, their utility is limited by the fact that the person must be sitting at their personal computer system to access the information.
To remedy this limitation, palmtop computers, electronic organizers and other handheld devices, commonly known as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's), have been introduced. The PDA is a computer that is small enough to be handheld or placed in a pocket, and allows a user and run various applications including personal information management applications such as address books, daily organizers, etc. These applications make people's lives easier.
A popular brand of PDA is the Palm™. However, the Palm™ is much more than a simple PDA. A basic configuration of the Palm™ 100 is shown in FIG. 1. This small, slim, device, about the size of your wallet, can hold 6000 addresses, 5 years of appointments, 1500 to-do items, 1500 memos, 200 e-mail messages, and can run many different software applications.
The front of the Palm™ 100 is a large LCD screen 110 which is touch-sensitive and allows a user to enter and manipulate data. A stylus (not shown) is provided with the Palm™ to help in making touch screen inputs. By using the stylus (or another handheld pointer) to interact with a touch-sensitive screen, a palmtop user can easily navigate through a host of built-in programs, software, and other applications.
Today, the Palm™, PDA and other handheld computing devices (Palm tops) offer Internet connectivity capabilities, as well as a vast array of hardware and software choices. Palmtops have evolved from simple organizers into a new kind of handheld that people use to instantly manage all kinds of information, from email, to medical data, to stock reports.
Mobile telephones (cell phones, PCS, satellite phones, etc) are also common tools in today's world. Many cell phones include rudimentary functionality for maintaining telephone numbers and other functionality to help alleviate the burdens associated with making calls and tracking phone numbers. In addition, the modern cell phone also has options for personalizing the style of various phone operations.
One trend in the PDA marketplace is the integration of radio based services into the PDA. One pioneering example is the Palm VIIx which includes RF capabilities to access a wireless network (palm.net) to provide email and web-clipping internet access to users.
However, the networks that service the PDA marketplace have seen significant demand and increased traffic. Generally, costs are incurred for each of the messages transmitted or received. During activation of the PDA, significant amounts of traffic are produced to register the radio device within the PDA, collect billing information, and other data needed to activate a wireless account.
Additional problems also occur when user's attempt to activate, but, for example might not have the needed information on hand, or incorrectly enter information. Resulting error messages and transactions tie up valuable air time and could result in unintended actions (system hangups, etc.).